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Dear George,
This article /blog has been done to death.Why the rehash? Cheers, Joe.

It's a new allegation of criminal behavior of a sort somewhat related to the original allegations made against him. And I will point out Mr. Klickstein was recently invited by high ranking instructors to teach at a major seminar raising the question as to whether his continued exclusion from the world of Aikido was fair (questions of rehabilitation, forgiveness, etc.). So it isn't a rehash but new information that if proven true would be seen by many as relevant to those questions.

It's a new allegation of criminal behavior of a sort somewhat related to the original allegations made against him. And I will point out Mr. Klickstein was recently invited by high ranking instructors to teach at a major seminar raising the question as to whether his continued exclusion from the world of Aikido was fair (questions of rehabilitation, forgiveness, etc.). So it isn't a rehash but new information that if proven true would be seen by many as relevant to those questions.

Dear George,
This article /blog has been done to death.Why the rehash? Cheers, Joe.

Dear Joe,

I won't claim to speak for George, but I don't think it's fair to say that "this....has been done to death."

Just as the Catholic Church's child-sexual abuse scandal will not be over until not only the abusers, but the apologists and protectors who enabled the continuing predation are subject to identification and public sanction, this isn't going away any time soon.

There will be a trial and a verdict, unless there's a negotiated plea. The long-standing argument that "this is all a matter of he-said, she-said hearsay and we must respect the fact that there have never been criminal charges or any finding of guilt" is going to melt like an ice-cube on asphalt in the West Texas summer.

When -- not if, but when -- that happens, there are some very senior individuals who are going to have to publicly acknowledge that they exhibited dreadful judgment and publicly accept that their own past actions were tragically misguided at best and shamefully complicit at worst.

When -- not if, but when -- that happens, there are some very senior individuals who are going to have to publicly acknowledge that they exhibited dreadful judgment and publicly accept that their own past actions were tragically misguided at best and shamefully complicit at worst.

Dear George,
This article /blog has been done to death.Why the rehash? Cheers, Joe.

Joe,
Since I was at the center of previous efforts to make people aware of past events and make sure that Klickstein did not re-enter the Aikido community, I can tell you that in my communications with Aikido community leaders there were some, even some very highly ranked who either had the attitude of "that was years ago, time to forgive and forget" or who still seemed to doubt that the accusations had been true in the first place since they were never aired in court. Therefore, this news, which is current and not a rehash, is important to help those folks perhaps reevaluate their attitudes, which fortunately were in a minority.

As difficult as it was for the Europeans to understand what had happened here, since they had been given very skewed accounts of the issue by Klicksetin himself, I wished to make sure that they could see that the efforts to keep Klicksetin from rejoing the Aikido community were in fact justified and that their decision to dis-invite him from participation in a very wonderful memorial event for Saito Sensei saved them from a great deal of potential embarrassment. I have been thanked for bringing this to their attention and they did not know about these latest developments. My relations with the organizers are quite cordial.

Frankly, the folks that fought the good fight way back when Klicksetin was first "outed" never really felt that they had been vindicated publicy for having done so and I think that making sure the community was aware of what has happened serves to show that those early efforts were important and not just some over reaction.

Of course Bruce acted completely on his own and, as I have stated on numerous other occasions, I have total compassion for his victims. They were innocent, underage girls who were preyed upon by an adult pedophile.

In a perfect world, Saito-sensei would be held blameless, which of course he was. Outside of Japan, this is generally the case and everyone, including inside Japan, feels sorry that the reprehensible acts of one of his top foreign students had a negative effect on him.

However, in Japan, inappropriate actions of a student strongly affect the reputation of his teacher. This is the way their culture works. In America we might say that since it happened on his watch, he must share the responsibility.

Saito-sensei took heavy fallout from the Aiki Hombu and was forced to personally strip Bruce of his rank and banish him from Aikido. All of this broke his heart. He is a victim along with the girls.